Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A cell containing a number and an arrow represents how many of the cells in the row or column pointed at by the arrow contain ships, but may not itself contain a ship. All cells which do not contain a numbered arrow clue or a ship must be connected in a single loop of horizontal and vertical lines which doesn't cross itself or branch off, as in a Straight and Arrow puzzle. Locate the ships and draw the loop.To my knowledge, Thomas Snyder was the first puzzlesmith to combine these two puzzle types.

In this Process of Illumination puzzle, the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.

(click to enlarge)

And that wraps up another batch of Evil Zingers (EZ's)! I decided to save the biggest and evilest one for last. I'd like to thank my readers for the astounding feedback they've given me, particularly on my Monday Mutant series; without you, these EZ's wouldn't exist. :)

In this Fencing Match puzzle, exactly one number in each row and in each column is wrong. The rules are otherwise unchanged.When you can't even trust all of the clues in an Evil Zinger (EZ) to be correct, what can you trust?

In this Polyominous puzzle, the given numbers have been replaced by letters; all instances of a particular letter represent the same number, but two different letters must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.Where did all the numbers go? And why are there letters in this Evil Zinger (EZ)? Letters aren't numbers.

In this Pearls of Wisdom puzzle, black pearls and white pearls have been placed in every cell that could legally contain one. The rules are otherwise unchanged.This Evil Zinger (EZ) features a mutation created by Thomas Snyder.

In this Blackbarrier Jam puzzle, instead of no two black cells being allowed to share an edge, every black cell must share an edge with EXACTLY ONE other black cell. The rules are otherwise unchanged.Haven't I done this variant before? Yep. Expect more Evil Zinger (EZ) revisits of my previous ideas.

In this Polyominous puzzle, while multiple solutions for the whole grid exist, there is one empty cell (and only one) which can be solved with absolute certainty. Identify this one cell and the number that belongs there.I'll let this Evil Zinger (EZ) speak for itself.

In this Crowd Nine puzzle, while multiple solutions for the whole grid exist, there is one empty cell (and only one) which can be solved with absolute certainty. Identify this one cell and the number that belongs there.This Evil Zinger (EZ) mutation of the classic puzzle was inspired by veteran puzzlesmith Thomas Snyder.

Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.I turn 23 today! To celebrate, I'll be posting Monday Mutant-style Evil Zinger (EZ) puzzles throughout the day. Are you prepared for some very difficult and very mutant puzzles? Of course not! Nobody is! BWA HA HA HA! I am so evil!

Don't forget to visit my blog tomorrow, when I'll be posting a batch of eight special mutant puzzles for you, my readers. Be forewarned -- these puzzles are Evil Zingers (EZ's), as well! If you haven't already, take a look at the previous batch of Evil Zingers to get a feel for the difficulty.

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown (without changing the numbers), but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. These ships also function as black cells in a Process of Illumination puzzle, and the numbers on some of the ship segments function as they normally would in such a puzzle. None of the black cells already present in the grid are part of the ships. Locate the ships and solve the Process of Illumination puzzle.If none of the other puzzles on this blog can be considered "mutants", this one most definitely can be.

Speaking of mutants, the day after tomorrow is my birthday! To celebrate, I will be posting more Monday Mutant-style puzzles just for the solving pleasure of you, my dear readers. Of course, since they're going to be posted on a Wednesday, I won't be able to call them Monday Mutants. Nonetheless, I believe you'll enjoy them. :)

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.

ERRATUM: I must not be cut out for logic puzzles any more. This puzzle marks my second erratum in a month. . . *sighs* Water has been added to make this puzzle have a number of solutions that is closer to 1 than before. I originally had water in this location (as well as a bunch of other locations that proved unnecessary), but somehow failed to notice that removing it created an ambiguity. I'm terribly sorry.

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
Ten ships (as indicated below the grid: one four-cell ship, two three-cell ships, three two-cell ships, and four one-cell ships) are hidden in the grid. The ships may be rotated from the orientations shown, but may not overlap or occupy cells which share a corner or an edge. A number to the right of a row or below a column indicates how many cells in that row or column are occupied by ships. Additionally, some segments of the ships are shown within the grid, and cells with wavy lines are "water" cells which cannot contain ships. Find the ships.Some of you who are already familiar with the genre of Battleships may be wondering why such a puzzle has been posted as a Monday Mutant. My justification is that, prior to the introduction of the Monday Mutant series, I've stuck to Nikoli's precedents as much as possible (I don't publish any puzzle type they don't, the givens in a Fillomino, Slitherlink, or Sudoku are always symmetrical, a 9x11 Kakuro never has entries longer than 5 digits, a Slitherlink never has two 0's sharing a corner or an edge, etc.). In the Monday Mutants series, I strive to make puzzles that are entertaining and logical, but worry less about these precedents. Suddenly, the precedent that a Sudoku puzzle never has any indicator of which pairs of cells contain consecutive numbers, for example, can be thrown out the window, if the resulting puzzle can be solved via logic and is entertaining and different enough to justify its existence. Battleships is a puzzle type "neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli", and as such, the precedent is not to publish them. This Monday Mutant abandons that precedent completely.

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
In this Polyominous puzzle, the given numbers have been replaced by letters or symbols; all instances of a particular letter or symbol represent the same number, but two different letters or symbols must represent different numbers. The rules are otherwise unchanged.
This puzzle is a tribute to twolegends.

We got another bakery to tackle my 22nd birthday cake design, which the previous one wrecked. Here's the result!Okay, so they kinda cheated by copying the printed design onto edible paper with edible ink. But they iced over the numbers and dots with non-cheating icing! And look, it's perfectly aligned and everything. From a visual perspective, I am much happier with this cake than the previous one. It smells delicious, too. :)

Edit: I forgot to mention that this cake was made by a grocery store bakery. Kinda sad that they did a better job than the real bakery. . .

Since they didn't get much front page time before being supplanted by the latest Monday Mutant, I'd like to remind everyone that I have recently posted threegiantpuzzles for your solving torture. To my chagrin, the last one had a mistake that I have since had to correct. To assuage my resulting lack of faith in my test-solving skills, I've had Joseph DeVincentis check this one beforehand; he assures me that an error was not found in the puzzle. Thanks, Joseph DeVincentis! :)

Monday Mutants is a series in which I will attempt to experiment with "mutant" puzzles. These could be existing puzzle types with an unusual change in the rules, hybrids combining elements from multiple puzzle types, or puzzle types neither invented nor popularized by Nikoli.
In this Blackbarrier Jam puzzle, instead of no two black cells being allowed to share an edge, every black cell must share an edge with EXACTLY ONE other black cell. The rules are otherwise unchanged.It's déjà vu all over again. . .

Longtime readers will no doubt be aware of my current tradition of posting a large 31x45 puzzle on every 25th puzzle. However, this first update of May 2010 represents a huge deviation from this tradition, because today, I give you, dear reader, three 31x45 giantpuzzles. However, if these puzzles aren't your cup of tea, rest assured that I will resume posting more manageable-sized puzzles and puzzles in which you do something besides draw a loop soon enough. :)
ERRATUM: Well, my streak of over 200 puzzles without an erratum had to end sometime. This giant puzzle had one itty-bitty mistake that led to there being multiple solutions, as Kenneth Levine pointed out to me. The version below fixes this. I'm dreadfully sorry.

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If you enjoy my weekly word puzzles, please consider supporting me monthly on Patreon. You'll get sneak peeks at this blog's puzzles, and exclusive puzzles just for patrons. You can support for whatever amount per month fits your budget. Thank you!

Who's the author?

Grant Fikes has been writing logic puzzles in an amateur capacity since 2005, and in a professional capacity since 2013. He serves as the second-most prolific contributor to the blog on Grandmaster Puzzles, behind only Thomas Snyder; his works have also appeared in Akil Oyunlari, in Sudoku Xtra, the United States Puzzle Competition (2012-2014), and in a smartphone app. Grant has also created Kakuro puzzles for Kakuro Conquest (the puzzles haven't appeared yet, for whatever reason). As a budding word puzzle constructor, Grant's puzzles have appeared in the short-lived Will Shortz's Wordplay, in GAMES World of Puzzles, and in the smartphone app Bonza, and his creation Pent Words has won an award from Kadon Enterprises; as an occasional board gamer, his game Battle of LITS has been published by nestorgames and Lyris Laser Studios and is playable on BoardGameArena. On the Internet, Grant has adopted the persona of a purple and cyan fox/badger hybrid.

PLEASE DO:* commission me! I make good puzzles!* become my patron on Patreon! You'll get early access to my word puzzles!* print these puzzles out to solve them on paper* copy and paste these puzzles into your preferred image editor, and solve them there* e-mail me (glmathgrant@gmail.com; I can nudge you towards a solution if you're stuck, or interact with you in other ways)* post non-spoiler comments directly on the blog (i.e., "I like what you did with the 3's", "The logic in the upper left corner was astounding")* share these puzzles with friends and link to this blog

PLEASE DON'T:* spoil the solution in the comments section for all others to see* post completely irrelevant comments (including comments consisting completely of punctuation)* claim these puzzles as your own* make money off of these puzzles without my permission

What's that font?

Since Wordy Wednesday 72, all puzzles on this blog use the royalty-free Tinos font. Hooray for free stuff!

Who made those images?

The purple and cyan mascot on this page is my fox/badger fursona Grant Badger Fox. The blog's banner was made by PunkJax, the image of Grant holding a tip jar was made by Marquis2007, and the "Certified Puzzlemaster" badge was made by Mary Mouse.